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Exercise too extreme?

J

jaykay

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How do I know if I'm exercising too hard? Specifically, I'm talking about a liver dump of glucose. I don't like walking so prefer to do about 20-30 mins of reasonably heavy aerobic exercise, pushing up my pulse rate and getting lovely and sweaty. Now I read on here somewhere that if you exercise too hard you get this glucose dump that pushes up your bg ( which I presume is not a good thing). So how do I check that my exercise regime is not doing me more harm than good? Do I test before and after? And how far away from food does it have to be so as not to be influenced by what I've eaten. I think I'm actually okay, as I don't push so hard as to 'feel the burn' but I thought it best to check. Thanks :)
 
The latest ideasas are that the most effective exercise is a mix of resistance and cardio.
Liver dumps are most likely if bg is high to start with
Hana
 
Why would you get a liver dump if bgs were high I thought liver dumped because there was not enough glucose in your body.Oh I wish I understood DB :cry:
 
Test ! Before - during and after. That way you will know exactly what is going on. You should also have some warning signs that your bg is getting too low - unless of course your Hypo awareness is not very good ? Everybody is different, just make sure you know what works for you and your own exercise regime.

Carol take no notice - You are right in what you say !
 
Okay, thanks all, testing it will be. As far as I know I've never even come close to having a hypo. I eat every 4/6 hours and have never had any wierd feelings around being hungry - or ever. I've always been able to run on empty pretty effectively and the diabetes hasn't affected that yet. I wasn't concerned about getting a hypo through exercise, just didn't want to push my bg up.
 
carty said:
Why would you get a liver dump if bgs were high I thought liver dumped because there was not enough glucose in your body.Oh I wish I understood DB :cry:
Click to expand...

I'll try to explain. High blood sugar is a sign of not enough insulin in the bloodstream, or insulin not working effectively (insulin resistance). Our bodies don't know that they have diabetes, it's not something that's meant to happen so our body is not programmed to recognise a lack of insulin. When we exercise our muscle cells demand energy. Insulin is used to move glucose from the bloodstream into the cells that need it. Because there's not enough insulin in the bloodstream, or our insulin is not working effectively, our cells don't get the energy they need from the glucose because the glucose isn't moving into the cells. The brain is sent a signal to say the muscle cells are deprived of glucose or energy. Our brain doesn't see this as a result of no or not enough insulin (remember our body isn't programmed to recognise this) so our body thinks that the reason there's not enough glucose in the cells is because there's insufficient glucose in the bloodstream. The quickest way for our body to produce more glucose for energy is by sending a signal to the liver to dump more glucose. When this happens, and there's still not enough insulin in the bloodstream, the blood sugar level raises even more. The more demanding the exercise the more quickly glucose must move from the bloodstream into the cells. If the amount of insulin in the bloodstream can't keep up with demand for energy the higher the chance of the liver secreting glucose to meet demand.

edited to add: If a Type 1 has recently injected insulin and there is sufficient insulin in the bloodstream then (when exercising) the glucose will move quickly out of the bloodstream with the help of the abundantly available insulin to meet glucose demand from the muscle cells. This results in a more rapid drop in blood sugars. So to sum up, if you don't have enough insulin on board your blood sugar may rise, if you have insulin on board then your blood sugars may drop and depending how much insulin is available it might drop quite quickly.
 
Why has nobody ever explained that to me then? I was doing MMA, kungfu and climbing mountains until recently and I have been diabetic for ten years, my GP knows this but he never mentioned a Liver Dump.
 
Thanks for this I have taken up learning to swim and I find my blood sugars rise after I have been swimming, now I think I understand why. I'm type 2
 
What @SophiaW is basically saying is that you can start exercise with bg levels anywhere. If you don't have enough iob, then as a result of her explanation, you get a liver dump.

It's similar to the issue with eating protein in reasonable volumes. Typically your body triggers an insulin response (which it doesn't get) and a glucagon response alongside it to maintain balance, which of course as a diabetic, you can't maintain.
 
I work hard at gym, my muscles burn and my BG drops fast, and stays that way until I eat, I don't think it's a given that your liver will dump and push your levels up, actually for many it helps to lower BG levels overall, helps you lose and maintain good weight which in turn helps you to manage your diabetes, there are other health benefits like improved sleep patterns.

Check your levels after you work out, overall exercise both hard and light should far out-way not exercising,
 
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